Sanfrecce Hiroshima manager Hajime Moriyasu believes his team paid the price for its own success in failing to land a third straight J. League title last season, but the 46-year-old insists that this year will be different.

Sanfrecce went into last season riding an unprecedented wave of achievement, having claimed the league title for a second year running and reaching the Emperor's Cup final only to be denied the double by Yokohama F. Marinos.

As spring turned into summer and a second straight Asian Champions League campaign began to take its toll, however, the wheels fell off Sanfrecce's season. A string of indifferent results as play resumed after the World Cup break saw Moriyasu's men slip out of title contention, and an eighth-place finish was the best they could manage with defeat in the Nabisco Cup final adding insult to injury.